Elvis Presley saves a young boy from a menacing stranger after a performance in 1956, setting up a chain of events that ultimately leads to a mystical encounter with an angel who sends Elvis on a journey that changes his destiny. The young boy grows up into a rich and powerful man who forces Elvis to confront the demons of his addictions. There are many threads to this story, such as the involvement of Johnny Cash to help orchestrate the plan while a down-and-out reporter investigates the mystery of Elvis' death, getting too close to the truth. As the tale unfolds, the reader will be pulled back to the days when the King of Rock 'n' Roll held court from his throne.
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2020 by Ms. Magazine, USA Today Book Riot, The Rumpus, Library Journal, PureWow, The Every Girl, Parade and more. “Forever and to the end. That’s what they say instead of I love you.” When Ruby King’s mother is found murdered in their home in Chicago’s South Side, the police dismiss it as another act of violence in a black neighborhood. But for Ruby, it’s a devastating loss that leaves her on her own with her violent father. While she receives many condolences, her best friend, Layla, is the only one who understands how this puts Ruby in jeopardy. Their closeness is tested when Layla’s father, the pastor of their church, demands that Layla stay away. But what is the price for turning a blind eye? In a relentless quest to save Ruby, Layla uncovers the murky loyalties and dangerous secrets that have bound their families together for generations. Only by facing this legacy of trauma head-on will Ruby be able to break free. An unforgettable debut novel, Saving Ruby King is a powerful testament that history doesn’t determine the present and the bonds of friendship can forever shape the future.
After growing up in small-town Hearts Bend, Tennessee, Gemma Stone set off to Hollywood to make her mark in the world.But her ambition turned into a journey of a "thousand" bad decisions and after twelve years of seeking fame and fortune, Gemma returns home with a limp and a dark secret. Now she runs a rescue ranch and is raising her friends' orphaned daughter. She's keenly aware these defenseless ones are also rescuing her. She just wants to stay hidden in the safe world she's created.HRH Crown Prince John has learned a royal title cannot shield him from heartbreak. As heir to the revered House of Blue and married to the love of his life, he believed his future reign would strengthen the royal dynasty of Lauchtenland. Then tragedy changed everything. Can anything save him from his grief?When he travels to Hearts Bend on a mission for his mother, Queen Catherine, he's drawn into the local life and cajoled into a three-legged race with the beautiful Gemma Stone during the 4th of July festivities.While the event has a disastrous result, Prince John and Gemma form a quick friendship-one of two wounded souls finding comfort in one other. However, love is absolutely not an option. John desperately wants to hold onto the memories of his wife, and Gemma refuses to trust her heart to any man. Even a prince.Then Prince John is called home for an emergency. How can he leave the woman who lifted him from his sorrows? But can Gemma join him on a royal stage and risk her secret coming to light?With a touch of divine help, Prince John and Gemma just might find the kind of love that saves and ultimately write their very own fairy tale.
Lionel Logue was a self-taught and almost unknown Australian speech therapist. Yet it was this outgoing, amiable man who almost single-handedly turned the nervous, tongue-tied Duke of York into one of Britain's greatest kings after his brother, Edward VIII, abdicated in 1936 over his love for Mrs Simpson. The King's Speech is the previously untold story of the remarkable relationship between Logue and the haunted future King George VI, written with Logue's grandson and drawing exclusively from his grandfather Lionel's diaries and archive. This is an astonishing insight into the House of Windsor at the time of its greatest crisis. Never before has there been such a portrait of the British monarchy seen through the eyes of an Australian commoner who was proud to serve, and save, his King.
"[A] masterly and often riveting account of King’s ordeal and the 1960 'October Surprise' that may have altered the course of modern American political history." —Raymond Arsenault, The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice) The authors of Douglass and Lincoln present fully for the first time the story of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s imprisonment in the days leading up to the 1960 presidential election and the efforts of three of John F. Kennedy’s civil rights staffers who went rogue to free him—a move that changed the face of the Democratic Party and propelled Kennedy to the White House. Less than three weeks before the 1960 presidential election, thirty-one-year-old Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested at a sit-in at Rich’s Department Store in Atlanta. That day would lead to the first night King had ever spent in jail—and the time that King’s family most feared for his life. An earlier, minor traffic ticket served as a pretext for keeping King locked up, and later for a harrowing nighttime transfer to Reidsville, the notorious Georgia state prison where Black inmates worked on chain gangs overseen by violent white guards. While King’s imprisonment was decried as a moral scandal in some quarters and celebrated in others, for the two presidential candidates—John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon—it was the ultimate October surprise: an emerging and controversial civil rights leader was languishing behind bars, and the two campaigns raced to decide whether, and how, to respond. Stephen and Paul Kendrick’s Nine Days tells the incredible story of what happened next. In 1960, the Civil Rights Movement was growing increasingly inventive and energized while white politicians favored the corrosive tactics of silence and stalling—but an audacious team in the Kennedy campaign’s Civil Rights Section (CRS) decided to act. In an election when Black voters seemed poised to split their votes between the candidates, the CRS convinced Kennedy to agitate for King’s release, sometimes even going behind his back in their quest to secure his freedom. Over the course of nine extraordinary October days, the leaders of the CRS—pioneering Black journalist Louis Martin, future Pennsylvania senator Harris Wofford, and Sargent Shriver, the founder of the Peace Corps—worked to tilt a tight election in Kennedy’s favor and bring about a revolution in party affiliation whose consequences are still integral to the practice of politics today. Based on fresh interviews, newspaper accounts, and extensive archival research, Nine Days is the first full recounting of an event that changed the course of one of the closest elections in American history. Much more than a political thriller, it is also the story of the first time King refused bail and came to terms with the dangerous course of his mission to change a nation. At once a story of electoral machinations, moral courage, and, ultimately, the triumph of a future president’s better angels, Nine Days is a gripping tale with important lessons for our own time.
These chapter books introduce beginning readers to the detective mystery genre. Perfect for the Common Core, kids can problem-solve with Nate, using logical thinking to solve mysteries! Rosamond is visiting Scandinavia when she loses something. She wants Nate the Great to find it, even though he doesn’t know what she lost, what country she lost it in, or when she lost it. And he’s thousands of miles away. But if Nate doesn’t take the case, Rosamond plans to hire the King of Sweden. Nate doesn’t want Rosamond to bother the poor king. And he does want the chance to solve his first-ever international case. Can Nate find whatever Rosamond lost without leaving his neighborhood?
This heartfelt picture book biography illustrated by the Caldecott Honoree Ekua Holmes, tells the story of MaVynee Betsch, an African American opera singer turned environmentalist and the legacy she preserved. MaVynee loved going to the beach. But in the days of Jim Crow, she couldn't just go to any beach--most of the beaches in Jacksonville were for whites only. Knowing something must be done, her grandfather bought a beach that African American families could enjoy without being reminded they were second class citizens; he called it American Beach. Artists like Zora Neale Hurston and Ray Charles vacationed on its sunny shores. It's here that MaVynee was first inspired to sing, propelling her to later become a widely acclaimed opera singer who routinely performed on an international stage. But her first love would always be American Beach. After the Civil Rights Act desegregated public places, there was no longer a need for a place like American Beach and it slowly fell into disrepair. MaVynee remembered the importance of American Beach to her family and so many others, so determined to preserve this integral piece of American history, she began her second act as an activist and conservationist, ultimately saving the place that had always felt most like home.
